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Well, my previous plans for the day sort of fell through. No worries, though. The day will not be ruined. I might just see if my N64, that I brought back from my parent’s place last time I visited, still works or not. If so, hello Ocarina of Time! But in the meantime, let’s get you some reviews, shall we?

In Tides of Madness, players draft and play cards representing elder ones and places from the Lovecraftian mythos. This is in an attempt to combine suited cards and abilities, with the goal of accumulating the most victory points at the end of three rounds.

Players have to be careful as the more rewarding cards can cost players their sanity. Too much madness and players lose immediately. The player with the most victory points at the end of three rounds wins.

Players will move their agents to and from the precincts of Winterforge and attempt to complete contracts, recruit guild members, buy components, forge wondrous items, and ideally, be debt-free to gain the most reputation points (REP). The player with the most REP at game’s end wins.

In 3 Wishes, you and your friends have stumbled upon a lamp and decided to check if it was magical. Surprisingly, a genie popped out and offered to grant the owner three wishes. However, all of you are laying claim to this magical lamp. So to sort it out, the genie will only grant the wishes of the player with the most balanced set of wishes.

During the game, players will be trying to accrue one of each of the three types of wishes: a super power, a benefit for the world and a gift for yourself. However, since the cards are face down, you won’t always know what you are wishing for. During your turn, you’ll be peeking, swapping and even shuffling your cards. Once a player had decided that they have their three cards required to win the genie’s attention, they can call for the end of the game.

The game centers around the weather and managing of the garden tiles. Each turn, a player will roll a die to determine the weather for the round. Players will need the right amount of sun and rain to allow their garden to fully grow and attract the animals they need to win the game. The game will continue until a player has reached the necessary victory points to win the game.

Every player has a deck of cards in their chosen color. Your goal is to get rid of all of your cards before everyone else. The game is played in real time with all players acting simultaneously. You will take your deck in the palm of your hand and call out the action of the topmost card of your deck. If someone else calls out a matching action, you can perform the stated action together after which both players will discard that card and move on to the next. You can, at any time, take the topmost card and move it to the back of the deck in order to reveal the next card.

In Kenjin you take on the role of a feuding warlord in medieval Japan, marshalling your troops to control key battlefields like ports, bridges, camps and rice fields. Hey, gotta keep your army fed! The design is a standard “easy to learn, not-so-straightforward to play” card game in which cards represent units in your army of varying types, strength and abilities that interact wildly different with each other. When all the cardstock and blood settles, victory is determined by securing points at various locations through simple area control that, again, proves not so simple after all.

theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Escape From Colditz a brand new board game out of Osprey Games. Man these guys are killing it right now with all their new games to the market. I have been so impressed with their ability to continue and deliver solid titles with very high quality components. this game features a World War II theme and allied POW forces trying day and night to escape from the infamous Castle Colditz, the inescapable German POW war prison.

This game is based on real life events and designed in partnership by one of a hand full of people to actually escape the prison Major Pat Reid! Unbelievable story and history all wrapped up in one tabletop experience. So start thinking and planning your every move to even try and escape Castle Colditz!!

I love microcosms. Take the classic WWII German submarine movie, Das Boot. There is an inescapable immersion generated by the cramped quarters, the interplay among the submariners, and the life and death struggles that demand excellence and cohesion in crisis after crisis. Since prisons practically define microcosms, I’ve had my eyes on Escape from Colditz by Osprey Games since the reprint was announced last year. (The original game was published in 1973.)

Escape from Colditz allows players to immerse themselves in the historic escape attempts by the multi-national groups of POW’s secured inside the walls of Colditz Castle during WWII.